Brick hangers

ABSTRACT

Brick hanger strips to be applied to a wall or other flat surface in parallel rows or columns, and having outstanding lugs between which individual bricks are inserted to be held in uniformly spaced mutual relationship and at a predetermined distance from the wall, the spaces between the bricks then generally being filled with grout or other suitable filler to provide the appearance of a finished masonry structure.

United States Patent Sions et a1.

[15] 3,672,1 12 June 27, 1972 [54] BRICK HANGERS [72] Inventors: James B. Sions, 8903 Allandale Road, Richmond, Va. 23224; Wesley A. Gramllng, 6804 Glenmont Street, Falls Church, Va. 22042 221 Filed: Apl'1l2,1970 21 Appl.No.: 25,167

[52] US. Cl. ..52/712, 52/387, 52/502 [51] Int. C E04b 13/14 [58] Field of Search ..52/702, 502, 562, 247, 586,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,882,713 4/1959 Diehl ..52/387 2,003,996 6/1935 Finzer ..52/485 3,321,883 5/1967 Pascucci.... .....52/502 2,865,194 12/1958 Wallace.... ..52/502 1,848,937 3/1932 Coventry ..248/300 2,054,512 9/1936 Kemer ..52/502 Primary Examiner-Henry C. Sutherland Attorney-Alexander & Dowell [57] ABSTRACT Brick hanger strips to be applied to a wall or other flat surface in parallel rows or columns, and having outstanding lugs between which individual bricks are inserted to be held in uniformly spaced mutual relationship and at a predetermined distance from the wall, the spaces between the bricks then generally being filled with grout or other suitable filler to provide the appearance of a finished masonry structure.

4Claims,6Drawingflgures P'A'TENTEDJURU I972 3 672.1 l2

INVENTORS F|g.6 JAMES B. SIONS WESLEY A. GRAMLING ATTORNEYS BRICK HANGERS This invention relates to improvements in hanger means, particularly useful for attaching brick veneer to a wall and holding the bricks in the proper position priorto and during grouting.

The prior art teaches a number of brick hanger strip structures comprising means for supporting brick against a wall to which the hanger strips have previously been attached. Examples of this type of structure include U. S. Pat. No. 2,005,030 to Geisinger, US. Pat. No. 2,865,194 to Wallace and U. S. Pat. No. 3,321,883 to Pascucci. The present invention seeks to improve upon structures of this type without increasing the cost of the hangers, and preferably while decreasing it.

It is accordingly a principal object of this invention to provide a one-piece hanger strip structure which can be economically manufactured in a single stamping operation in which multiple brick-supporting lugs are stamped at right angles to a sheet metal strip, preferably, although not necessarily, at the same time forming the strip into the shape of a channel.

It is a principal object of the invention to provide a structure in which a single stamping operation completely forms the final hanger strip without requiring any further bending operation such as those required in making some of the prior art hanger strips to .bend portions of the lugs in a difierent direction to form at each lug a brick engaging resilient clip.

It is another major object of this invention to provide a brick hanger structure in which the same lug is never required to perform its functions on two different bricks located adjacent to it. For instance, in many of the prior art teachings including several mentioned above the same lug is called upon both to support the brick above it and also to resiliently engage the brick below it to hold the latter in place. The disadvantage in having the same lug perform these two functions resides in the fact that bending or other damage to any lug resulting in misalignment thereof causes sagging of several bricks all in the same vicinity. The present structure, therefore, divorces the function of holding the bottom of one brick from the function of holding the top of another brick, and provides separate lugs for perfonning each of these functions, the former being referred to hereinafter as support lugs and the latter as clip lugs;

Another major object of-the present invention is to provide a structure in which brick support lugs and clip lugs are bent outwardly along vertical lines from the sheet metal strip, i.e., in the present illustration from the web of the channel, so that they present knife" edges to the bricks which they support, and so that the support lugs which bear the weight of the bricks are rigid in the vertical direction and are not displaced thereby aroundthe lines at which they were originally bent out from the sheet metal web. In this manner, each lug appears to be an unyielding support for the brick which it contacts and each lug, whether it is a support lug or a clip lug, will not be sagged or displaced about its original bending line as would be the case with respect to lugs bent from the sheet metal about horizontal bending lines as shown in one of the previously mentioned patents. In the present disclosure the support lugs are rigid and the clip lugs are rigid, but the latter have resilient clip tabs extending therefrom and engaging the bricks.

It is a still further object of the invention to provide resilient tabs which have at their innermost ends sharp right-angle tips which engage and bite into a brick when it is once in place to prevent its accidental withdrawal, and which resilient tabs have tapered edges at their outermost ends making it easy to introduce the brick between the resilient portion of a clip lug and the support lug below it. 1

Another important object of the invention is to provide a brick hanger in which exact brick spacings are accurately maintained so that the final brick positions are precise. In many of the prior art arrangements as is the case in two of those shown in the patents mentioned above, the weight of the column of bricks located above a lug is transferred directly to the clips which support the lowermost bricks in a column because of the fact that each lug both supports the weight of a brick above it and also presses against the brick below to clip it in place. Thus, any bending of the lugs in a column will permit the entire column to sag, and this is especially true of structures in which the lugs are bent out from the metal strip about horizontal bend lines which give the lug a vertically resilient and displaceable characteristic.

Another object of the invention is to provide a structure in which all engagements with the brick are along narrow knifelike edges and in which the lugs when viewed from the outer face of the wall are seen only in edge-view. These are important features, especially from the point of view of making it easier to completely fill the space between the bricks with grout in view of the fact that no flat lug surfaces oppose the passage of grout between the bricks and into these spaces. Moreover, when the lugs engage the bricks only along narrow knife edges the grout wet almost the entire edge surface of the brick, which is not the case with respect to some of the prior art lugs wherein these surfaces cover substantial areas of the edges of the bricks and prevent contact of the grout with those surfaces. In view of the fact that most hangers are made out of sheet steel, it is preferable not to leave voids in the grout adjacent to the lugs in which moisture can form pockets of rust.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent during the following discussion of the drawing, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a length of hanger according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an elevation view showing in detail a pair of lugs according to the invention;

FIG. 3 is a section view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a side elevation view showing several adjacent lugs supporting bricks according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an elevation view of an assembly including a portion of a wall in which several rows of bricks have been inserted between the lugs of multiple hangers attached to the wall; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an assembly similar to FIG. 5 showing a portion of a partially bricked wall.

Referring now in detail to the drawing, the hanger strip itself is formed in the shape of a sheet metal channel 10 having opposed side flanges 11 which are turned inwardly toward a wall W on which the channels are to be mounted, for instance, by nails 12 shown in FIG. 4. These nails are inserted through suitable nail holes 13 which can be seen most clearly in FIG. 1. Each hanger strip has pairs of lugs stamped out of its web surface 10a and extending substantially at right angles away from the wall W. The lugs in each pair are different, and include a support lug 15 and a clip lug 20 in each pair.

Each support lug 15 lies beneath and supports a brick, as can best be seen in FIG. 4, and is in the shape of a step including a spacer lug 16 against which the machined inner surface M of the brick B lies. It is this spacer lug that spaces the brick outwardly from the surface of the wall by a uniform distance. The present disclosure illustrates a type of ornamental brick, such as the one shown in the Wallace US. Pat. No. 2,865,194 having a roughened central portion plus precisely machined edge surfaces at which the bricks touch the lugs to provide them with uniform spacings from the wall. However, the present type of hanger can obviously be used to support ordinary bricks, the fancier type of brick being shown herein only for the sake of illustration.

Each spacer lug 16 comprises a step having an outwardly facing edge 17 against which the machined face M of the brick lies, and each support lug also includes an upwardly facing narrow edge 18 which supports the lower surface of the same brick, as seen in FIG. 4. As pointed out previously in the specification the support lugs perform no other function than supporting the lower end of a brick and spacing it from the wall, and therefore the lower edge 19 of each support lug 15 is entirely out of contact with the brick.

Referring to the other lug in each pair of lugs, which is referred to as a clip lug 20, the upper edge 21 of each clip lug performs no useful purpose because it contacts no brick. However, each clip lug 20 also includes a spacer lug 22 comprising a step having an outer edge 23 against which the machined surface M of the brick B rests. Thus, the inner machined surface M of the brick is supported both near its bottom and near its top respectively by spacer lugs 16 and 22 having narrow edges 17 and 23. The top surface T of each brick B rests against the lower narrow edge 24 of a resilient tab 25. This tab has a cutout nitch 26 in its corner permitting it to be bent diagonally with respect to the main body of the lug 20 and also providing it with a sharp right-angle tip 27 which can bite into the brick and make it more difficult for the brick to accidentally fall out of the hanger. As pointed out above, the resilient tab 25 also includes a tapered outer edge 28 making it easy to insert a brick between a lower support lug l and an upper clip lug 20.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 where the bricks are assumed to have a standardized length, and the hangers are nailed to the wall W in vertical orientation and with such horizontal spacings S that each brick is supported in several places by hangers. This is of course an arbitrary selected illustrative spacing, and it is to be clearly understood that the hangers can be spaced at intervals different from those illustrated to suit particular needs. At any rate, the important thing to note is that each brick is supported from beneath only by its own sup port lugs 15, and is supported from above only by its own clip lugs 20, and that all bricks are spaced outwardly from the wall by their own spacer lugs 16 and 22. Thus, adjacent bricks in the neighboring rows or columns do not rely upon the same lugs for any degree of their support.

The following claims are presented to summarize the novel features of the invention, which has just been described in terms of an illustrative embodiment.

We claim:

1. Hanger means to be attached to a wall to support rows of bricks of predetermined dimensions to form a veneer wall, each hanger means comprising an elongated one-piece sheet metal strip having a central web portion and having longitudinal edge flanges bent at an angle to the web portion to stifi'en the strip; multiple pairs of brick engaging lugs located between the flanges and integral with the web material and bent outwardly away from the wall about bend lines which are parallel to the longitudinal flanges, both lugs in each pair comprising substantially flat sheet metal lying substantially in planes which are normal to the web portion and extend longitudinally of the hanger means and the lugs including oppositely facing spacer lug portions which lie in the same plane as the lugs of which they are integral parts and comprise steps located adjacent to the bend line at the web and extending between the web and the bricks to space the latter from the former, and each pair including a support lug having an edge adjacent to its spacer lug for engaging and supporting the side surface of a brick and including an adjacent clip lug which is independent of the support lug and longitudinally offset thereadjacent and the clip lug having an edge adjacent to its spacer lug for engaging the side surface of an adjacent brick and the lugs of each pair having mutually contiguous edges lying in the same transversely disposed plane.

2. ln hanger means as set forth in claim 1, the clip lug in each pair having a main portion lying in said longitudinal plane, and having a tab portion extending therefrom and deflected transversely of the strip at an oblique angle to said longitudinal plane, and the tab portion including said surfaceengaging edge.

3. ln hanger means as set forth in claim 2, the edge of said tab portion having an end located near the strip and this end having a sharp substantially right-angle tip disposed to bite into the brick surface and resist its withdrawal from the tab, and said edge being tapered upwardly away from the brick surface near the end of the tab which is remote from the strip.

4. In hanger means as set forth in claim 1, both lugs in each pair and their spacer lugs comprising metal taken from mutually adjacent areas of the web and bent outwardly therefrom in transversely opposite directions with respect to the strip so that their longitudinal bend lines are located in the web near oppositeflanges. I. It 

1. Hanger means to be attached to a wall to support rows of bricks of predetermined dimensions to form a veneer wall, each hanger means comprising an elongated one-piece sheet metal strip having a central web portion and having longitudinal edge flanges bent at an angle to the web portion to stiffen the strip; multiple pairs of brick engaging lugs located between the flanges and integral with the web material and bEnt outwardly away from the wall about bend lines which are parallel to the longitudinal flanges, both lugs in each pair comprising substantially flat sheet metal lying substantially in planes which are normal to the web portion and extend longitudinally of the hanger means and the lugs including oppositely facing spacer lug portions which lie in the same plane as the lugs of which they are integral parts and comprise steps located adjacent to the bend line at the web and extending between the web and the bricks to space the latter from the former, and each pair including a support lug having an edge adjacent to its spacer lug for engaging and supporting the side surface of a brick and including an adjacent clip lug which is independent of the support lug and longitudinally offset thereadjacent and the clip lug having an edge adjacent to its spacer lug for engaging the side surface of an adjacent brick and the lugs of each pair having mutually contiguous edges lying in the same transversely disposed plane.
 2. In hanger means as set forth in claim 1, the clip lug in each pair having a main portion lying in said longitudinal plane, and having a tab portion extending therefrom and deflected transversely of the strip at an oblique angle to said longitudinal plane, and the tab portion including said surface-engaging edge.
 3. In hanger means as set forth in claim 2, the edge of said tab portion having an end located near the strip and this end having a sharp substantially right-angle tip disposed to bite into the brick surface and resist its withdrawal from the tab, and said edge being tapered upwardly away from the brick surface near the end of the tab which is remote from the strip.
 4. In hanger means as set forth in claim 1, both lugs in each pair and their spacer lugs comprising metal taken from mutually adjacent areas of the web and bent outwardly therefrom in transversely opposite directions with respect to the strip so that their longitudinal bend lines are located in the web near opposite flanges. 